Monroeville Hypnosis-Fondling Case Goes To Trial

MONROEVILLE, Pa. -- A local minister and newspaper reporter accused of hypnotizing and fondling a woman has been ordered to stand trial, Sheldon Ingram reported Tuesday on Channel 4 Action News.

The alleged victim secretly videotaped the June 3 encounter at her Monroeville apartment and gave the tape to police, claiming that it showed Charles Brown, 33, had taken advantage of her.

At a preliminary hearing Tuesday, the woman testified that she went to Brown for counseling earlier this year, and he eventually suggested they try hypnosis.

She was a member of Potter's House Ministries in Braddock, where Brown served as an associate minister.

The woman testified that she felt strange after her first hypnosis session, and she suspected that Brown had touched her inappropriately, so she set up a video recorder before their next meeting.

Defense attorney Robert Del Greco suggested that the woman willingly participated in the activity on the tape.

"She was not unconscious, either by definition of the statute or by a common sense term," Del Greco said. "I observed what I believe to be responsive conduct and voluntary actions (on the tape)."

Del Greco also said that the woman's attempt to record any activity or conversation between herself and Brown violates state law.

"It is clear by statute that the oral interception of an individual is a felony under the wiretap act, as well as disclosure of that interception," Del Greco said.

After reviewing the tape, District Justice Walter Luniewski said he had no doubt that the woman did not have control of her faculties during the hypnosis session, and he sent the case to trial at a later date.